1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to processing of yard debris into constituent components for reuse and, more particularly, is concerned with a method and apparatus for separating pine straw from common yard debris so that the pine straw can be reused for decorative purposes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pine straw is a decorative landscaping material comprised primarily of intact pine needles. Although this material provides an attractive and decorative ground covering for landscaped areas around trees and shrubs, it is well known by those skilled in the art of landscaping and landscape maintenance that pine straw will gradually accumulate leaves, grass clippings and other lawn debris. The current practice of those skilled in the art of landscape maintenance, is to attempt to manually and mechanically separate lawn debris from pine straw or discard pine straw when it has become contaminated with lawn debris. The former method is labor intensive, the latter is wasteful and environmentally disadvantageous. Thus, heretofore no effective and reliable method and apparatus has been presented for cleaning and recycling decorative pine straw.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,393 to Tucker exemplifies prior art methods and apparatuses for separating organic materials. Tucker discloses a device for removing contaminants such as dirt, dust and mold from hay. The operator feeds hay into the inlet end of Tucker's apparatus. A set of rotary tines in combination with a stationary rake beat and agitate the hay as it is drawn across a screen connected to a vacuum pump. The vacuum pump draws dirt, dust and mold out of the hay, as the hay is discharged to an outlet, thus improving the hay for animal feeding purposes. Although Tucker's device would be useful for removing smaller particulate materials, its vacuum screen would not be suitable for separating similarly sized but differently weighted organic constituents.
Consequently, a need exists for a way to separate similarly sized but differently weighted constituents of mixture of dry organic material, such as pine straw from lawn debris.